I have always made it a practice of ONLY ONE can of powder out at any one time. I'm sure this is a very good policy. Mixing powders can ruin your day!! Another hazard is in buying powders from an unknown source without verification of the product. I once bought several pounds of a very coarse grained extruded powder that was mixed with a very fine ball powder of some sort. The extruded powder was the right number, but the ball powder mixed in...who knows? I salvaged this lot by using a sieve that allowed the ball powder to pass, but held up the coarse extruded stuff. Obviously, someone had inadvertently dumped about � lb of the ball powder into the opened 8 pounder of the other powder. Here's a powder mixup experience a friend of mine had 20 years ago. He was loading 30-06 for himself and two of his buddies. Two of the rifles were 760 Remingtons, the other a 77 Tang safety Ruger bolt action. Noting an ad in the local rag selling some handloading tools, dies and components, he responded. The woman selling the stuff had lost her husband, and she was getting rid of all the firearms related items. My pal bought the works, and included were several tins of powder, some unopened, a couple had been opened. Noting a partial tin of 4320, a powder he was using in the 30-06, he simply added it to his powder supply. Later, in preparation for a hunt, he and his two sidekicks [No, I was not there!] went out to sight in. A few shots later, older ammo was expended, and they decided to try the new batch, loaded with the "IMR4320" he had bought. You can imagine the surprise when one guy touched off a round, and it blew the magazine clean out of the 760, broke the forestock and siezed the action tighter than a boar's a** in flytime! Turning to my pal, he says: "It's that stinking ammo you loaded" My pal, not being convinced, says: "No way, that gun must have had a flaw." Picking up his own 760, he loads a round, and aims it at the target and pulls the trigger. Real consternation strikes now, since the result is practically a repeat of what just happened to the other 760. So, he gathers up all the ammo, and heads for home to check for an overload, etc, etc. Pulling some down, he weighed the charges, but they were bang on. Realizing he must have some other powder in that can, he pulls the rest, and dumps all that powder down the toilet. It would be nice to say this was the end of story, but it's not. My bud bought a new rifle for his pal and himself, and vowed to never use powder if he was not absolutely sure of the identity. However, one of those loaded rounds got overlooked, and ended up in the third rifle a few weeks later. This Ruger suffered permanent damage as well, and My pal bought another rifle to replace that one. The real miracle is: none suffered any personal injuries save a few small abrasions from wood slivers from the broken stocks. No one knows what powder was in that 4320 tin, but it had to be a fast burning number [maybe 4227] Bt there is certainly a lesson in this: Be absolutely SURE of the powder you are using!! Regards, Eagleye.
